I saw a bunch of movies on dvd recently, let's go through 'em real quick:
Moonrise Kingdom - This movie by Wes Anderson is really good, a sort of modern day yet nostalgic fairy tale about first love. Acting, direction, story all aces. Good stuff.
This Means War - Captain Kirk and Shinzon are spies fighting over Reese Witherspoon. Dumb Dumb Dumb film making but no denying the stars know how to shine in this flick.
Our Idiot Brother - This was advertised as a broad comedy but it turns out it's a sort of heart warming dramedy about a simpleton who wreaks havoc in his sister's lives. Kind of boring.
Fast enough?
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Friday, November 09, 2012
The Killers - Runaway (2012)
This past month one of the songs I've been obsessed with has been "Runaway" by The Killers. And it's kind of funny because the first time I heard the song I didn't think much of it, just seemed like The Killers doing that Killers thing. After a few plays I started to really dig that tune, man. Changed my way of thinking yo.
The Song: "Runaways" initially reminded me a bit of their big hit "When You Were Young" off their sophomore album Sam's Town. The songs seemed to go at a similar pace and have that Bono style chorus, not to mention being the lead single to their respective albums. "When You Were Young" had a lot of comparisons to Bruce Springsteen's "Born To Run" back when it was released, though I don't think "Runaways" fell into that trap. What made "Runaways" different was the amount of synthesizer and that surging drum bit, it gives the song a nice flavor that separates it from "Young". Made it a little more 80s retro, plus I love that part where it gets synth heavy in the bridge. So now I wonder, what is this song about?
The Lyrics: I'm not good at lyrics, remembering or interpreting them. I've just read the lyrics to "Runaways". I think it's about marrying some blonde girl who keeps talking about how we all are just runaways in some deep philosophical way. This is really one of those things that plays out better in songs or poetry than it would in life, some one saying meaningfully "I think we're all just...runaways!" It's one of those things where the person it was said to would go "Huh? What? Ohhh, I get it now. Kinda a stretch but I get you" situations. Anyway, they have a baby and then the guy character screws up somehow leaving him kicked out of the house. But he's determined to win back the love of his life because they're both runaways. Matched with the music the story gets blown up to a sort of mythological status, since we're all just runaways then maybe the story of these two people are a microcosm of all runaways consisting of all of us. I'm a runaway, you're a runaway, my dog is a runaway - you get the picture. And for some reason when it goes "Are you lonesome now" I think they're referring to Elvis' "Are You Lonesome Tonight". And when the singer goes "Oh! Oh! Oh!" I flash to Tom Petty's "The Waiting".
The Video: You know the music video for this song is pretty good. It's got this flying road, a mic stand that changes colors like a lightsaber, a lot of pointing - the things that make for a good music video. And seeing those floating red squares drift into each other was dope! Ooh, shapes! Although I like The Killers I don't know a whole bunch about them so I just think of them as Brandon Flower's band. But I notice how much screen time the Jason Lee My Name Is Earl looking drummer gets so I get the impression he's an important part of the band too. Like he's second in command to The Killers. The Mr Spock to Flower's Captain Kirk.
Free Association: My first thought about "Runaways" is the Tom Selleck movie called Runaway. That was a pretty decent 80s B movie sci fi flick. It had Kiss' Gene Simmons as the bad guy firing heat seeking bullets from his love gun. And that's why it's good to be...me. Kirstie Alley was in that one, bridging that career gap between Star Trek II and Cheers. Alley recently confessed her love for John Travolta who she knew from Look Who's Talking, who had co-starred with Alley's Runway co-star Cynthia Rhodes in Staying Alive. You know the most memorable scene for me from Runaway was that robot extracting a bullet from Cynthia Rhodes' shoulder? Cynthia Rhodes was also in Dirty Dancing, which was big in '87. You know who else was big in '87? Bon Jovi. Who had a song in '84 called "Runaway". Which sounded nothing like The Killers song at all.
Wrap It Up: "Runaways" wasn't a huge hit, it was a sort of middle ground hit that says to people "Hey, they're still around". Just the same I think "Runways" is a smashing good time. It's from their 2012 album Battle Born.
The Song: "Runaways" initially reminded me a bit of their big hit "When You Were Young" off their sophomore album Sam's Town. The songs seemed to go at a similar pace and have that Bono style chorus, not to mention being the lead single to their respective albums. "When You Were Young" had a lot of comparisons to Bruce Springsteen's "Born To Run" back when it was released, though I don't think "Runaways" fell into that trap. What made "Runaways" different was the amount of synthesizer and that surging drum bit, it gives the song a nice flavor that separates it from "Young". Made it a little more 80s retro, plus I love that part where it gets synth heavy in the bridge. So now I wonder, what is this song about?
The Lyrics: I'm not good at lyrics, remembering or interpreting them. I've just read the lyrics to "Runaways". I think it's about marrying some blonde girl who keeps talking about how we all are just runaways in some deep philosophical way. This is really one of those things that plays out better in songs or poetry than it would in life, some one saying meaningfully "I think we're all just...runaways!" It's one of those things where the person it was said to would go "Huh? What? Ohhh, I get it now. Kinda a stretch but I get you" situations. Anyway, they have a baby and then the guy character screws up somehow leaving him kicked out of the house. But he's determined to win back the love of his life because they're both runaways. Matched with the music the story gets blown up to a sort of mythological status, since we're all just runaways then maybe the story of these two people are a microcosm of all runaways consisting of all of us. I'm a runaway, you're a runaway, my dog is a runaway - you get the picture. And for some reason when it goes "Are you lonesome now" I think they're referring to Elvis' "Are You Lonesome Tonight". And when the singer goes "Oh! Oh! Oh!" I flash to Tom Petty's "The Waiting".
The Video: You know the music video for this song is pretty good. It's got this flying road, a mic stand that changes colors like a lightsaber, a lot of pointing - the things that make for a good music video. And seeing those floating red squares drift into each other was dope! Ooh, shapes! Although I like The Killers I don't know a whole bunch about them so I just think of them as Brandon Flower's band. But I notice how much screen time the Jason Lee My Name Is Earl looking drummer gets so I get the impression he's an important part of the band too. Like he's second in command to The Killers. The Mr Spock to Flower's Captain Kirk.
Free Association: My first thought about "Runaways" is the Tom Selleck movie called Runaway. That was a pretty decent 80s B movie sci fi flick. It had Kiss' Gene Simmons as the bad guy firing heat seeking bullets from his love gun. And that's why it's good to be...me. Kirstie Alley was in that one, bridging that career gap between Star Trek II and Cheers. Alley recently confessed her love for John Travolta who she knew from Look Who's Talking, who had co-starred with Alley's Runway co-star Cynthia Rhodes in Staying Alive. You know the most memorable scene for me from Runaway was that robot extracting a bullet from Cynthia Rhodes' shoulder? Cynthia Rhodes was also in Dirty Dancing, which was big in '87. You know who else was big in '87? Bon Jovi. Who had a song in '84 called "Runaway". Which sounded nothing like The Killers song at all.
Wrap It Up: "Runaways" wasn't a huge hit, it was a sort of middle ground hit that says to people "Hey, they're still around". Just the same I think "Runways" is a smashing good time. It's from their 2012 album Battle Born.
Wednesday, October 03, 2012
The Rundown 10/3/12
I can't figure out the new blogger system so all the items ran together into one paragraph. Pretty annoying.
Ruh roh Shaggy, it's been a month. What's new?
Moneyball - being an Oakland A's fan for the past four years or so, the movie Moneyball confirmed a lot of what I expected about the franchise. The low budget roster, the taking of a lot of pitches at the plate, the constant wheeling dealing all made contextual sense after watching this. The film itself was good stuff, watching Brad Pitt and Phillip Seymour Hoffman needle each other as interoffice opponents was particularly fun. It gets a lot of good dramatic tension out of something that should be mind numbingly boring. And hey, the A's won their Division today! Let's Go Oak-Land (clap, clap, clapclapclap)!!!
The Real Housewives Of Rambo - In a reality tv show classic moment, two New Jersey housewives who are related to each other (Teresa Giudice and Kathy something)go at it to the point they start insulting each other's parents. Teresa then unwittingly pisses off who I assume is Kathy's sister by insulting their dead father. The sister heads for Teresa unleashing a barrage of death threats while Teresa sits in shock and Kathy goes all Colonel Trautman (Trautman was Richard Crenna's character in the Rambo movies, the guy who did all of Rambo's trash talk for him) letting Teresa know a beat down is coming. Kathy's condescending look and "you know who it is" comment to Teresa while the sister rages on was just so Rambo to me. For fun, thought I would compare Kathy's demeanor from the Real Housewives scene with a scene from Rambo First Blood
The Real Housewives Link is here
The Rambo Trautman speech is here
I'm Tired - The latest song to follow me around is one from Adele's first album, called "Tired". I've heard it twice this week in different places. It's a good song, and with news that Adele will be singing the new James Bond theme I'm sure I'll be going on an Adele kick.
The fall seasons begins...I guess - A lot of my favorite comedy shows have started off their new seasons the past two weeks, but most of them are a little flat. How I Met Your Mother hasn't been very funny the last two episodes, they seem to be out of stuff to do. Tosh.0 also is a bit lackluster, missing some of that snarky zing from better times. The premiere of Key and Peele had some funny spots but overall did not rival anything from season 1. Big Bang Theory is getting lost in girl friend relationships and is quickly losing it's geek mojo. At least New Girl has remained consistently amusing so far.
Billy Corgan, right on - speaking of mojo, I listened to the recent Smashing Pumpkins disc Oceania and I liked it a lot. Despite being the only original Pumpkin left, Corgan has succeeded in resurrecting his 90s alt rock juggernaut with a strong album. Probably the best Smashing Pumpkins album since Mellon Collie.
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